Google now recommends retrieving blog results by conducting your search and then clicking "News" (above the results)> "Search Tools" (to the right, also above the results)> "All News" (that subsequently appears in the row beneath "News" and "Search Tools", et al)> "Blogs" (from the resulting drop-down menu). However, the list of blogs from which these results are drawn is not as extensive or diverse as those retrieved by the previous BlogSearch.

But are They Really Blogs?

Retrieving the Blog-only results from a Google NewsSearch for the keyword "Obama" returned results drawn primarily from the blogs of mainstream media news sites (e.g., South Florida Reporter, Tampa Bay.com, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, The Hill, Fox News). Previously, many smaller, individual, and personal-type blogs were also included in results.  

The current results list covers a date range of approximately five months.

Filters Can't Be 'Mixed and Matched'

While it would be logical to believe that you could extend the date range of your Blog-only NewsSearch results by creating a "Custom Date Range" (using the "Anytime" drop-down menu), this Custom Date Range does not actually work as expected.

When we entered a date range of "01/01/2015-12/31/2015" we did receive a new list of results that fit into that date range - but one that had reverted to "All News" sources. Also note that when we used the "Sorted by Date" feature (found at the top of the results list) the reordered list of "All News" results was in no discernable order at all, with dates jumping from:

• June 3, 2015
• February 6, 2015
• February 11, 2015
• October 22, 2015
• December 24, 2015
• May 8, 2015
• June 30, 2015

While you can filter the list back to Blog-only results, by clicking "All News" (in the row beneath "News" and Search Tools", et al)> "Blogs" (from the resulting drop-down menu) - again - unfortunately, the resulting list reverts to "Recent" results, "Sorted by Relevance."

So, you can either have a longer, more-specific date range of "All News" sources or a list of five months worth of "Blog-only results. Take your pick.

The post Google Kills Blogsearch (Again) – But This Time They REALLY Mean It appeared first on Continuing Legal Education (MCLE) in California, MCLE Los Angeles, CLE Orange County, Irvine & San Francisco.

We have found some clues to the date coverage of the Google News database by conducting test searches for some period-specific-type topics like the keyword “Nixon.”

Clicking “Search Tools”>”Recent”>”Custom Range” gives us the opportunity to set a custom date range from which we want Google to retrieve News results. Even here,  Google offers no search hints to indicate how far back news content might be available. When we visit the Google News Help pages (https://support.google.com/news/answer/3334?hl=en&ref_topic=13635), they state, “For a specific date range, select “specified dates” and enter what range you’d like to search in the two date fields. For ranges older than 30 days, use Google Web Search.” However, it IS possible to retrieve news results form the Google News Search interface that is older than 30 days using the  “Search Tools”>”Recent”>”Custom Range” method.

For example, using this method we were able to retrieve news results for our “Nixon” search back to approximately 1977 (Time magazine result shown above). The majority of results prior to 2002 came from the NY Times and were available to read for free.

The post Google’s News Search is in Even Worse Condition Than we First Thought | Another in an Unfortunately Growing Series of Articles about Google Search Problems appeared first on Continuing Legal Education (MCLE) in California, MCLE Los Angeles, CLE Orange County, Irvine & San Francisco.

Recent Google News test searches (like the one above) have included results dating back as far as  2004.

But a visit to Google's News documentation would still tell you that "Google News includes articles that have been crawled within the last 30 days."

Even the Wikipedia entry for Google News still indicates that it only covers the most recent 30 days worth of news content. However, our test searches clearly show that older sources are being included in the results lists.

Whether this extension is a result of Google's intention to permanently return older news results or just a temporary effect caused by Google re-crawling specific news sources remains to be seen.

Note, these results are not being generated by searches of Google's (mostly-ignored) News Archive search.

The post Google Quietly Extends Coverage Range of Google News Database appeared first on Continuing Legal Education (MCLE) in California, MCLE Los Angeles, CLE Orange County, Irvine & San Francisco.

Google Blogsearch is no more. It appears that Google has killed the blog only search database.

Requests for the blog-only search interface that used to live at https://google.com/blogsearch and https://blogsearch.google.com now return a "page not found" error or redirect to Google's "regular" Web Search interface.

It is, however, possible to force Google to display the Blogsearch interface and search the Blogsearch database by manually adding the application for the Blogsearch to your the URL in your browser's address bar (or omnibox) - like this https://www.google.com/search?tbm=blg. (tbm instructs the the browser to retrieve a specific application from the Google server and blg is the designation for the Blogsearch. A complete list of Google application designations can be found at http://webapps.stackexchange.com/questions/58550/what-does-tbm-mean-in-google-search.)

Blog results can also still be displayed by clicking the "Search Tools" button above Google News Search results, then clicking the "All News" drop-down menu and selecting "Blogs." However, this list of blog results is not as extensive as those retrieved by searching the above-referenced URL.

For example, retrieving the Blog-only results from a Google News search for the keyword Obama returned results drawn primarily from the blogs of mainstream media news sites (e.g., Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, Fox News) and covers only a date range back about 23 days.

The same search using this interface https://www.google.com/search?tbm=blg returned results from a wider range of blogs (including smaller news outlets and personal blogs), as well as covering a broader date range.

While it would be logical to believe that you could extend the date range of your Blog-only News Search results by creating a "Custom Date Range" (using the "Anytime" drop-down menu), this Custom Date Range does not actually work in the News Search for any dates beyond the News Search's 30 day coverage range. (It is a remnant of the old News Archive Search.)

The post Google Kills Blogsearch – But Here’s How You Can Force Google to Display it appeared first on Continuing Legal Education (MCLE) in California, MCLE Los Angeles, CLE Orange County, Irvine & San Francisco.

Google has changed the way users access the Advanced Search options for its News database. The Advanced Search options are now accessed via a drop-down arrow on the right hand side of the Google News search box.

Previously, the Advanced Search page was accessed via an "Advanced news search" link located to the right of the search box. Additionally, the URL for the previous Advanced Search page (https://news.google.com/advanced_news_search) leads only to a 404 error page.

The new drop-down does retain all of the features and search-limiters that were previously available on the original version of the News Advanced Search page. This Summer, Google also moved the location of the Advanced Search page for it's Google.com Web Search page.

The post Google News Advanced Search Page Link Relocated appeared first on Continuing Legal Education (MCLE) in California, MCLE Los Angeles, CLE Orange County, Irvine & San Francisco.